Forever United
by cotederpablo
Summary: My version of the kiss in "Reunion". If there was any justice in this world, this is something along the lines of what might have happened.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is my version of the kiss in "Reunion" (7x2, the one where Ziva kisses Tony on the cheek). If the world went the way I wanted it to, this is what would have happened. Do not confuse this with the talk they had in the ladies room about Agent Dunham, it's different. I'm not sure if I should continue or not. Reviews are very much appreciated! **

Ziva David looked at her reflection in the mirror. McGee was right: she had been avoiding Tony, and especially after what had happened between them, she really did owe him a thank-you, to say the _least_.

Tony. She could not even begin to describe him. A funny, charming, movie-loving, brave, handsome, womanising prankster who was one of the best investigators she had come across. And although had had a few bad qualities, Ziva cherished the relationship they had before. She wanted more than anything to have that back, and she knew it was up to her.

Breathing deeply, she turned to exit the ladies room and jumped when she saw him enter. The two were making a habit of going into the wrong bathrooms on purpose. They did, however, serve well as places to talk.

"What are you doing in here?" she snapped.

Tony clicked his tongue. "I sensed you wanted to talk about something."

"Your senses are correct." Her voice was softer now, and she was not looking directly at him.

"OK, you talk and I will listen."

Ziva took another deep breath, and then began. She told him how he had been right. How none of it mattered anymore and that she had always been there for her. Then, she placed one slim hand on his cheek, stood on her tiptoes and planted a gentle kiss on the side of his face.

"Your instincts were right," she continued. "You were a cop and—" she stopped. She had become lost in his sparkling green eyes, which were looking right into hers, so deeply that he must have seen all the way into her soul.

Ziva knew what was about to happen, and didn't stop it, didn't think about it, didn't hesitate. For once, she just let something happen, and it felt good do not think constantly about the consequences of _everything. _

Tony leaned down to return the kiss, but this time on her soft lips. Both of them closed their eyes and held each other tightly. They knew this was all they would ever have. They knew that things would be different when they let go. Had they had the option, they might have stayed there, clinging to each other for much longer, but they was a noise and well, you can take the girl out of Mossad but you can't take the Mossad out of the girl. The noise, mysterious and ever so quiet, made Ziva turn around, clearly paranoid someone would see them. Seeing nothing, she looked at Tony again, but only for a second, and then ran back outside, leaving him by himself in the women's bathroom.

He touched the place where he had felt her lips caressing his, the place on his cheek where her eyelashes had batted against his cheek, leaving tiny streaks of mascara on his skin. He tried to replay that precious moment inside his mind, savouring every second of it that he had to cherish, and knew he had to hold on to that memory. Then he too returned to work, not looking Ziva in the eye for a few hours. It was complicated.

As soon as Tony had left, Abby Sciuto had practically jumped out of her bathroom cubicle and punched the air in victory, her pigtails swishing back and forth. Tony and Ziva had kissed; this was good, for sure. But what was even better was that she had taped the whole thing on her cell phone.

**A/N: So, what do you think? Should I continue? Reviews make my day! **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Part of the idea for this chapter came from purplemonkeyz48, so thanks. Also thanks to everyone who read and reviewed this story! **

Thoughts and ideas circled endlessly through Abby's brain. What to do with the video? Facebook? YouTube? There were way too many possibilities, and anyway, she was too loyal to Tony and Ziva to expose what had _clearly _been meant to be kept a secret, what with Rule 12 and all. What was the point of that anyway? Was Gibbs speaking from experience, or was it just so if a relationship between two co-workers didn't work out, it wouldn't affect the team or any cases? She did not know, and sometimes it was hard to accept that forensic science couldn't solve everything.

Then, she had a thought, and before she could consider what she was doing, she was sending the video to McGee. Abby snapped out of her trance only to see the screen flashing the word 'Sent'. What had she done?

Thinking she might have a stroke of luck, she raced downstairs to see if anyone was downstairs, only to find Director Vance watching her from the balcony.

"Is there something you need, Miss Sciuto?" he asked, chewing on a toothpick.

"Where is McGee?" she snapped, hands on hips.

"Gibbs, DiNozzo, David and McGee are at a crime scene. Is there something you need?"

She hesitated. "No, sir...sorry to cause trouble."

He sighed and returned to his office. Abby was frantically trying to think of options she might have when she felt her cell phone vibrate inside her pocket. She didn't even look at the caller ID. She knew who it was.

"McGee! I can explain—" she answered.

"_I certainly hope you can_," she replied, cutting her off. "_But not now, later, when we're alone."_

On the other side of town, McGee ended his call and returned to photographing the dead body that lay on metres from him.

"What was _that_?" Ziva asked before Tony could open his mouth to make fun of him.

"Nothing, no one, it's not important," he stuttered as she glared at him.

"Is my little probie getting probed tonight?" Tony said in a puppy-dog voice, sticking his bottom lip out.

"Give it up, McGee. No matter how you answer, he's going to make fun of you," Ziva told him. He obeyed, and did not say anything else. Ziva turned to Tony. "And _you _should stop making fun of him. You _know _he hasn't got a date." She frowned. "That came out wrong."

McGee was really sick of them treating him with such disrespect. He was the source of their entertainment, nothing but a joke to them. And now, he knew how to pay them back.

Upon their arrival back at NCIS, McGee sat down at his desk, plugged his phone into his computer and transferred the file. Then, he typed in the URL of his Deep Six fan site and uploaded the video to the main page, making it the main focus. Next to that, he wrote a small note.

_Dear fans,_

_This video will be of great interest to most of you. While Deep Six will probably never be made into a movie, this would probably be one of the scenes if it was. The people in this video, whose names I will not mention, were my inspirations for the characters of Tommy and Lisa. I think you really will enjoy this._

_Thom E. Gemcity._

He smiled a smug, almost evil smile and then began his research on the case. He had not just done this out of spite, he had also seen it as something his fans would really enjoy. He knew none of them would ever visit the website, but at least he had that up his sleeve. And the best part? They had absolutely no idea.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: So, you gotta know a bit about Deep Six before you read this chapter. In case you haven't seen those episodes, I won't ruin too much for you. Basically, Tommy and Lisa are characters based on Tony and Ziva. Agent McGregor was based on McGee, and Tisa is the couple name I made up for them, because I figured there would be one if Deep Six was real. Enjoy and thanks for all reviews!**

It had only been an hour, and the video seemed to have gone viral. Already, it had had been posted on YouTube and had 21, 447 views. Comment after comment was submitted, many of them asking for a sequel. The view counter was going up by the minute, and it was only a matter of time before one of them found out about it.

McGee had watched it several times himself, trying to figure out what had gotten into them. OK, so there had always been sexual tension between them, and he had written about it in a book but he never thought they would _kiss. _And the whole thing seemed so much more than a simple kiss. It started out as a 'thank you' but then grew into a release of emotion. What if they broke Rule 12? Gibbs would most certainly not be happy about that.

_You have received a new email from Abby Sciuto _was the message that popped up on McGee's screen. He opened it eagerly. It read:

_HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO THEM? NOW EVERYBODY KNOWS THEIR SECRET. Well, not everyone, actually no one here except you and me but POSTING THE VIDEO ON THE INTERNET WAS REALLY LOW! I mean, I guess they've done bad things to you in the past but THEY'RE YOUR FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES AND YOU REVEALED A SECRET TO STRANGERS ALL AROUND THE WORLD. I AM NOT SPEAKING TO YOU._

_-Abby _

McGee thought Abby was completely overreacting. So he had gone a little overboard on the whole 'revenge on Tony and Ziva' thing, but his readers were enjoying it. He tried to convince himself he was right by scrolling through some of the comments fans had left:

**Deep_Six_Obsessed87 writes: **_OMG I am sooo in luv with the book and they should sooo make a movie of it! Tommy and Lisa are soul mates!_

**TISA-fan1992 writes: **_Almost choked on my pizza when I saw this! Thank you Thom E Gemcity!_

**Mrs. McGregor writes: **_How stupid are the Hollywood people? How could they not make a movie out of this awesome book? _

Well, the nicknames were getting a little creepy but the fans were definitely having a good time, and McGee's next mission was to convince Abby of that. So he raced down to her lab, hoping she would be reasonable.

Upon his arrival, she did not say a word. He tried to talk to her, but she just ignored him and acted as if he was not there. Eventually, he gave up and left in a huff, and that made her grin. She knew that her not speaking to him would kill him inside, or at least enough to make him take down the video. Although in a way, it was her fault for filming them, but she only wanted the best for Tony and Ziva's relationship. She wanted so badly for them to get together. She knew they would be happy _all _the time if they acknowledged the love for each other that lay deep inside both of them.

While McGee was in Abby's lab, Tony and Ziva arrived back from a suspect's house and noticed him gone. Tony, as always, was unable to resist the temptation to snoop around his desk, when he noticed YouTube was open. He clicked on it, curious to see what McGee would be watching, and froze in place when he found out. His shock made him unable to even choke out Ziva's name. She did notice his expression until about thirty seconds later.

She leaned beside him, staring at the computer screen, her brown eyes widening. They looked at each other when the video ended, and for a moment, Tony thought they might kiss again, but he didn't want to take the risk with her. Even though things had been sorted out between them, their relationship was still extremely delicate. Neither of them really knew where they stood with one another. Friends, partners, lovers, or somewhere in between? Regardless, they both did know one thing: they were going to _kill _McGee.


	4. Chapter 4

Tony spat out Ziva's ponytail. She had turned so sharply it had hit him in the face. She was furious, and was quickly making her way to the place where McGee always hid when he had done something wrong: Abby's lab.

"Ziva, Ziva, stop!" Tony called, practically on her heels.

"What?" she snapped, turning around and hitting him with the ponytail again. "Sorry."

He shrugged. "It tastes like coconuts."

"It's my shampoo," she smiled, and then snapped out of her trance. "But that's not important. Why aren't we murdering McGee right now?"

"Because we don't know the whole story and jumping to conclusions is a _very _bad thing. We need to gather evidence and formulate a plan of attack."

Ziva's patience was thin. She was clearly agitated. Tony took a step back from her as she pulled her knife out of her desk drawer and flicked it open, checking her reflection in the blade.

"Now look, the video is on the Official Deep Six Fan Site, which McGee is the webmaster of, so we know he uploaded it."

"Right."

"But," he continued before she could say any more. "We do not know he filmed it."

"Tony, you do realise just _watching _the video is reason enough for punishment."

"And where do I fit into all of this? I mean, I was the one who—"

"Don't finish that, Tony." She paused, as if she was considering what to say next. She tapped the end of the knife with her finger. "Every rule has an exception. You are that exception, Tony. You always have been."

Tony smiled at her, and then cleared his throat. They kept becoming distracted, but why? Was it because they were focusing on the wrong thing?

"Ooh, no time for a plan of action. Here he comes," Ziva's eyes threw an evil glare at the elevator.

"Hi guys," he said, somewhat cheerful. Oh, how naive he was.

His co-workers stepped in front of him, arms crossed over chests, like two big bodyguards. No words were exchanged for several minutes, but Tim learnt something about himself: Tony and Ziva staring intensely at each other made him feel awkward, but Tony and Ziva staring intensely at _him _made him feel terrified.

Ziva was the first to move, as Tony stood back and enjoyed the fun with a smirk on his face, her right-hand man.

She grabbed his shirt collar. "Delete the video _now, _McGee."

He inhaled a shaky breath and uttered a single word: "No." Well, not so much 'uttered' as squeaked.

"No? McGee, my knee is extraordinarily close to your groin."

She lifted her knee, hard and fast and McGee winced in pain. Tony's smirk turned into a grin and that grin transformed into roaring laughter. It was even funnier because, frankly, he had been there, and it had been painful. Although in hindsight, he really should have seen it coming back then.

"OK, OK, I'll delete the video," McGee whimpered. "But I have a price: tell me _your_ side of the story."

"Simple," Tony answered. "It was a kiss. It happened once, end of story."

Ziva's heart sank a little. Was that really all he thought of her?

"It didn't mean anything."

She felt a lump in her throat, and wanted to cry, but she couldn't leave now.

"So, that's it?" McGee was still curious, still sure that there was more.

"Yeah, that's all. It shouldn't have happened but it did. It wasn't a date, so we didn't break the rules and it's over now."

That was the end of that, but not for Ziva. She had to confront him, and she planned to, but not here. There was a chance they would get seen again. No, it had to be somewhere where Tony would let his guard down, where he would not feel her coming: his apartment. _

"Am I that worthless to you, Tony?" she demanded of him, hands on hips. She stood outside his door and looked deep into him.

"What? Have you lost your mind?" He was stunned, dumbfounded by this sudden confrontation.

"Well, I must have because I clearly remember you saying how our kiss meant nothing, _nothing_ to you."

"Are you serious? That was just to scare off McGee. I wanted him to leave us alone, and now the video is off the Net, just like you wanted."

Ziva cringed and held her head in her hands.

"Oh, Tony, I am so sorry. I should not have believed it for a second."

"No, you should know better," he joked, tucking a curly strand of hair behind her ear. She saw the love in his eyes, and wanted it, all of it, but it was too wrong.

He tried to kiss her, but she shrank away.

"Tony, you know how I feel, and you know how you feel, but there are _so _many reasons to stop us from being together."

"Gibbs knows it's unavoidable, he's known for years."

"It's not just him. Vance would certainly not approve, but more importantly, you are my partner. There is no one in this world I care for or trust more than you. If you were to die, I couldn't cope. Imagine what it would be like for both of us if we got too attached."

"Mossad has taught you to bury your feelings, to never let them get in the way of the mission and so has Gibbs, with Rule 10. But what is your mission, Ziva? To get through life miserable and die alone with nothing but regrets? You only get one life. Live it while you still can. We'll take it slow if you want, but all I know is that I want you; all of you. I want you to be mine. Please, Ziva, please." His voice dropped to a whisper as he pleaded for her love.

"You are right. Again. I have experienced a lot of pain in my life and now I am afraid of getting hurt. If I live my life in fear then what will that ever accomplish?"

"So, does this mean...?"

"I think it does, Tony."

Next thing they knew, the sunlight was pouring through his bedroom window as they lay entangles in the bed sheets.

"Told you your life would have more meaning," Tony whispered to a sleeping Ziva, who just tightened her grip on him. He had seen her sleep before, but never like this. She no longer looked sad, confused, upset or conflicted. In fact, she looked almost happy. A smile made the corners of her mouth twitch.

This was bad. Her life had become a crappy chick flick. Tony would never run out of movie references for that.


	5. Chapter 5

And that was their life for the next month. Every night they spent together was different, but still as fulfilling as the last. They forgave Abby and McGee for the video and told them it was no big deal. They wanted to tell the truth but if they knew, it wouldn't be long before Gibbs knew either.

One dark morning, very early, the ring of a cell phone interrupted Tony and Ziva's comfortable peace. They both groaned, not wanting to move.

"Whose is it?" Ziva asked, yawning.

"Yours," he replied instantly. She sighed and climbed over to the nightstand.

"David," she answered tiredly.

"Ziva," Gibbs' voice came through the speaker. He sounded a little surprised, and there was a silence. Because of her tiredness, Ziva's patience was not as long-lasting as usual.

"What is the problem, Gibbs? Where do you need me to be right now? What can I do?"

"Well, we got a dead marine in a parking lot in Charlottesville, for one."

"I will be there right away, Gibbs. Send me the coordinates."

"And bring DiNozzo with you," he added.

Ziva gulped, choosing her words carefully. "I will call Tony and have him meet us there."

"I called _his _cell, Ziva." She froze. Those words made her blood run cold. "Tell you what," Gibbs continued. "Put the phone on speaker."

Ziva did as she was told, flashing Tony a 'we are _so _busted' look.

"DiNozzo," Gibbs said simply.

"Boss," he replied, pretending nothing was wrong, and poorly.

"What's Rule 12?"

"Never date a co-worker, Boss."

"Great. You know it, so tell me this DiNozzo, why are you breaking it?" For a man who should have been furious, he sounded awfully calm.

Tony bit his lip, and in an act of bravery and fear at the same time, he hung up the phone.

A few silent minutes passed and then Ziva received a text with some GPS coordinates and a message:

_I expect you BOTH here and CLEAN in half an hour! _

Both of them rushed to the shower, taking turns of course, they couldn't have any distractions, and then raced to the scene of the crime. Tony let Ziva drive to save time. Gibbs greeted them both with death glares upon their arrival. They raced to get their gear out of the car and began work immediately.

"Why's Gibbs so pissed at you two?" McGee asked curiously.

"Long story."

"Give me the abridged version."

"No! Get back to work, McCurious."

_Later that day..._

"The reason I have Rule 12 is mainly so that if things don't work out, the team can still solve crimes to the best of their ability. However, considering McGee and Abby are ex's and they are one of the best crime fighting teams out there, I don't believe that generalisation applies to everyone, as it will not to you two."

"I'm lost," Tony replied. Ziva elbowed him in the ribs.

"What I'm saying is, I'll take away Rule 12 _but _I am gonna add some more. For example," he counted each rule with his fingers. "_No _funny business in the office and...don't get married. Been there, done that."

"Gibbs, we apologise for not telling you," Ziva told him. "We thought you would react more harshly."

"Mm. Well, we have a killer to catch. Back to work, love birds."

They grinned at each other. A compromise. This could work.


End file.
